News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education
Nov. 5
Following an outpouring of anger over the order to suspend Antioch College’s operations — and an outpouring of donations to avoid the suspension — Antioch University’s board on Saturday announced it was lifting the suspension order.
The announcement followed weeks of intense discussions between the university’s board and administration and the alumni association of the college — which has played a historic role in American higher education, but which has struggled financially for years. Under the agreement between the alumni and the university, the alumni must come through with key financial contributions to keep the college operating. In addition, the alumni are going on record accepting that the college is in a state of financial exigency, that faculty and staff reductions will be necessary, and that some programs will be curtailed.
In a sign of how fragile the situation remains, the agreements announced by the college focus on continuing Antioch courses for current students and there are no plans to recruit a new freshman class to enroll in the fall. In an interview Sunday, a university spokeswoman said that new freshmen would not be recruited until the curriculum was revised and facilities were substantially improved — a process that will take at least a year and could take longer.
These and other details about the plan — which were not the focus of Antioch’s public statements — have some students and alumni questioning whether the plan represents a viable way to preserve the college. Generally, those who are the most skeptical are among those who haven’t trusted the university’s trustees or chancellor for some time, viewing them as responsible for the crisis facing the college.
Nonetheless, the shift on Saturday represents a dramatic reversal. In June, the university’s board announced that the college would suspend operations after this academic year and would not re-open until 2012. At the time, trustees said that they had no choice, and that the college lacked the funds to operate responsibly.
The college, on a campus designed for 2,700, was expecting only about 300 students this fall. Antioch was ahead of the times in combining liberal arts education with “co-op” education in which students worked at jobs all over the country. It was also early to embrace the civil rights movement, numerous social causes (of the left) and the idea that students should play a key role in setting the direction of their education.
In the past few decades, the university has opened campuses all over the country — focused on graduate and professional education. The university’s leaders see these campuses as vital to spreading Antioch’s style of education and serving more students. But many of the students and alumni of the college believe that the focus of the university leaders long ago left the Yellow Springs, Ohio main campus — and that failure to protect that campus’s independence is at the root of its problems.
The announcement from the university board Saturday appeared intended to reassure the college’s supporters in some ways, while also not backing away from the board’s fundamental view of the college’s situation. The statement, for example, pledged that the college would continue “in its historic core values and mission” as a residential, liberal arts colleges “committed to the principles of academic freedom and tenure.” In addition, the statement expresses a commitment to creating a new board for the college, which would work with the university board.
But the announcement also suggested support from alumni leaders for the board’s decision to declare financial exigency (which permits layoffs of tenured faculty members, among other steps) and the board affirmed its support for Chancellor Toni Murdock — who has been the subject of intense criticism and two no confidence votes.
The deal to avoid suspension followed weeks of talks between alumni board leaders of the college and university trustees. Both sides issued statements in which they praised the spirit of collaboration as key to the progress.
But much uncertainty remains. Susan Eklund-Leen, a professor of cooperative education, said that faculty members — who were all told in June that they were would be out of jobs at the end of the academic year — are “relieved,” but full of questions. “Lots of work must be done to repair the damage.”
She said that professors now understand that “downsizing will have to happen.” Some faculty members are seeking jobs elsewhere, others may retire, and a few have offered to take extended leaves if they can be assured of their positions at some point in the future. Committees are planning to start work today, she said, on the future of the college. “It will be very difficult because we will likely be planning people out of a job.”
How many people will lose jobs? No one knows, but that may depend on enrollment plans, which are a major source of controversy. Currently, Antioch College has 270 to 285 students, with somewhere between 70 and 90 expected to graduate in the spring. Mary Lou LaPierre, vice chancellor and chief spokeswoman for the university administration, said that the board believes it would be wrong to recruit new first-year students until facilities are fixed up and academic programs are improved. “We need to take a look at the curriculum, with some concern that the curriculum is not attractive enough to attract enough students,” she said. Time will be needed to plan those changes and for “market testing,” LaPierre said.
While she said she didn’t know how long it would take to be able to recruit freshmen, she said that it would be impossible this fall.
Jeanne Kay, co-editor of The Record, the student newspaper, said she was “very disappointed” in the agreement. She asked how faculty jobs could be cut when most departments have one professor. And if enrollment shrinks without new freshmen, she said she was worried that professors would disappear.
“We are already running at minimum operations,” she said. “If a professor of political science takes a job somewhere else, I don’t have a major anymore,” she said. “I wish this announcement could be something to celebrate, but it’s not.”
Many Antioch College supporters are circulating an analysis of the situation by Robert Devine, a former president of the college. In his take, he said that with the funds raised by alumni, there is no need to keep financial exigency, and that keeping it damages the college. The university board will have “power and control” and tenure will not really count, he wrote. He also said that the state of financial exigency will make it difficult to recruit students or faculty members as the board seems to stress “the tentativeness of the college’s existence.”
The financial exigency hurts fund raising as would-be donors will fear that gifts will “get devoured by deficit funding,” he said. And professors can’t play a real role in planning because “the financial exigency puts them on notice.”
Tim Noble, an alumnus who has been critical of the board, said he was very upset that the chancellor retains the board’s support and that students won’t be recruited. “They are being overly hesitant” on recruiting, he said. “What is a college without students?”
The plan seems to be similar to the suspension plan, he said, except alumni must provide more money now. “This seems like a corporate cover-your-ass plan” for the trustees, he said.
Nancy Crow, president of the alumni board, said she believed that trustees moved “a long, long way.” While she understood the concern about not recruiting freshmen, she said she understood the decision — and believed some new transfer students would be enrolled. Crow said she understood the concerns about professors’ jobs, but didn’t feel that there were other good options.
“We have a wonderful and grossly underpaid faculty, but the creation of new programs will require the financial exigency to remain in place,” she said. “Sadly, not all faculty will remain.”
LaPierre, the university vice chancellor, said that it shouldn’t be a surprise that the plan doesn’t make everyone happy in every way. “All good agreements leave all of the parties feeling as though they didn’t get everything they wanted,” she said.
As for the distrust of the chancellor, LaPierre said: “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that she wants a strong, thriving, healthy, fiscally sustainable college with terrific facilities, a marketable curriculum and the opportunity to provide students with a great undergraduate education.”
Noble said he and other alumni would be watching and considering their options — and, in the best Antioch tradition, challenging policies they find to be misguided. “Do I feel somewhat betrayed? Yes. Do I feel bitter? Yes,” he said. “That’s part of the Antioch experience.”
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If the Board of Trustees and Toni Murdock really are committed to the future of the College, they each should start by making large, personal, public contributions to the College. The Alumni Board did manage to do, essentially as volunteers, what the BoT did not do, but were in fact, explicitly charged to do as a result of their positions: raise funds for the college. An Alumni Board rep said that “some” of the BoT members have given to the revival fund. Murdock was not mentioned. Demand more.
Laurence, at 8:06 am EST on November 5, 2007
Until the college is totally separated from the “university,” the college will never be able to regain its former stature.
Jo, at 8:50 am EST on November 5, 2007
The AB may have reiterated their confidence in Murdoch, but virtually no one else on campus (who, by the way, were not really part of this negotiating process) does. There were THREE (not two) no confidence votes regarding Murdoch, faculty, union staff, and students. How are we supposed to work with and trust the chancellor who lead the fight to close the college? The AB board does the negotiation and leaves, while those of us on campus are now left to do all the work.
aisler, at 9:08 am EST on November 5, 2007
The most striking things about this whole affair are, first of all, the abject refusal of virtually everyone at the college (who is speaking publicly, anyway) to accept that whatever caused this collapse has already happened. There is no way the school moves forward from this, and yet no one wants to admit it. Devine’s position captures this denial perfectly: as Jaschik presents it, that ‘the state of financial exigency will make it difficult to recruit students or faculty members as the board seems to stress “the tentativeness of the college’s existence"‘, and that ‘the financial exigency hurts fund raising as would-be donors will fear that gifts will “get devoured by deficit funding"‘—as if these conditions are still hypothetical; as if the school is not really already in financial free-fall, and as if gifts now would not already be used to get the school out of its deficit.
The second striking thing is the irresponsibility of those who are trying to cobble together plans to avoid what has already happened, and who have succeeded in staving off the immediate closure. Now what? Do you tell Antioch faculty, especially the younger and more marketable ones, to stop looking for other, presumably more secure employment? Do you tell current students, who might transfer to other institutions while they might still be able to meet those other schools’ residence requirements and finish their undergraduate degree in four years, to stay? Do you tell prospective students—when there are any—and their parents not to worry about the stability of the institution, and that their—what is it now, more than $25k per year—won’t be spent in vain?
The choice properly now is not whether to let the school die; the school is now only ’surviving’ in the sense that a patient in a permanently vegetative state is surviving. The responsible thing to do is to choose what is the best and most ethical thing to do with the time and money remaining. I submit that that would be using the resources remaining at the school to help faculty retire or find new work, and helping students transfer to new institutions.
Maurice Meilleur, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at 10:25 am EST on November 5, 2007
The College Alumni Board did not pass a vote of confidence in Toni Murdock. That was the University Board of Trustees that passed that. Thanks.
Christian Feuerstein, at 11:15 am EST on November 5, 2007
The campus of Antioch WAS NOT designed for 2,700 students.When we were at our highest enrollment, students were sleeping on cots in the gym and at townspeoples home, not in dorms.
Sandy, at 2:17 pm EST on November 5, 2007
As I understood it, this agreement provides breathing space for needed work to be done, and does not dictate the content of that work. That will be up to the faculty, students, administrators and alumni who care enough to take an active role (as opposed to sitting back and criticizing the work of others, which we are wont to do.) We need to define what we want in a president, and then find her/him ASAP. The AB stepped up to the plate when they needed to, and I applaud them.
Megan Rosenfeld, at 2:26 pm EST on November 5, 2007
Maurice said:
The choice properly now is not whether to let the school die; the school is now only ’surviving’ in the sense that a patient in a permanently vegetative state is surviving.
Did you teach at Antioch at some point? What was you experience then? Was it doing more then “surviving"? I would think if you were drawn to teach there it most not have been dying.
I would say we shouldn’t count Antioch College out yet. There is a lot of fight in the alumni and they really, in terms of how fund-raising works, are just getting going I would guess.
Ted Glenn, at 2:26 pm EST on November 5, 2007
@Glenn: I did teach at Antioch, for two years. It was my first full-time gig, while I was still ABD. I don’t regret teaching there at all, but even then (2001-03) the school had been in severe difficulty for better than 20 years, and it asked a great deal of its faculty and students. I had the opportunity to stay but I felt my chances for stable employment were better if I left (and I was not the only one who felt this way).
But how I or anyone might feel about the institution is quite beside the point of whether the school can survive. No matter what side you find yourself on in any of the conflicts on the campus—and they were and are legion—it is simply a fact that the school has been persistently unable to recruit or retain enough students and productive/younger faculty to stay alive. The school has had to make a virtue of necessity for too many years in too many areas: funding, curriculum, hiring and tenure, recruitment, facilities, and governance. Its infrastructure is crumbling, its organization is encrusted with too much history and too many artifacts of past attempts to reform, and too many of the remaining faculty and staff with any institutional memory to speak of have too many axes to grind.
The plan described in Jaschik’s story cannot last any longer than it takes for the current students to finish their degrees and leave, after which point there will be no students there left to teach. It’s unlikely that a reasonable overhaul of the campus would be complete in time for the trustees to agree to bring in any kind of freshman class—let alone one the size the institution needs—and any rational observer would be justified in suspecting that the arrangement would not even last that long.
It is irresponsible to pretend that this isn’t true, and it is unethical for people in a position of authority to make promises about the institution, explicit or otherwise, to new faculty and news students who have to choose to trust them (or not) without any background information to inform their choice.
If trying to keep the school open only affected the lives and the resources of the people making the effort, then I am no one to tell them they shouldn’t be trying. But the school’s operation affects too many people, and it needs resources to survive that I’m afraid it couldn’t handle now even if it got them.
So instead of pretending the school isn’t dying, those at Antioch should be using what is left to help the people there now get out safely, and to let the school pass with some dignity and grace.
Maurice Meilleur, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at 3:51 pm EST on November 5, 2007
I am very happy that Maurice Meilleur moved on to a position at a well-regarded and well-financed state university. I believe that he found the extensive commitment required of faculty at Antioch College to be a burden, with all the time-consuming participation in democratic community governance. However, I would hope that as a Political Science Professor, (hopefully a “young", “productive” faculty member), he would take the time to study the complex facts of the situation before making recommendations about what would be best for the College based on his couple of years on site. True, the College has faced financial challenges for at least the fifteen years that I have been teaching here. Indeed, the history of the College has been rife with financial problems to the point where that state of affairs could be considered a tradition. However, the reasons for the current difficulties are more complex that Maurice would have one think (see The Antioch Papers.org). The Alumni Board has mounted a valiant campaign to save this distinctive, 155 year old, progressive, residential liberal arts college with its excellent co-op program. Although roadblocks to success remain, the good fight might actually prevail and the effort is a worthy undertaking.
Anne Bohlen, Professor, Media Arts at Atioch College, at 11:35 pm EST on November 5, 2007
Since the original announcement to suspend operations of Antioch College, various people, former professors, journalists, visitors to campus, former students and many others have seen fit to discuss the state of the current curriculum. I have not seen any of those who discuss the curriculum in my classes nor in the classes of other Antioch College professors.
Am I to suppose that the rigor and/or appeal of our curriculum is ascertainable by reading an outdated college catalog? Are my credentials as an educator known and rejected? Are other credentials of other faculty members known and rejected?
I have heard it said that our enrollment is low and the reason it is low is because our curriculum is not attractive. I believe the quote I’ve most often heard is, “students vote with their feet.” Our enrollment is low. Our funding through the endowment is low. The financial support we were assured from the Board of Trustees was withdrawn. When money became tight, the budgets for admissions staff and activity and staff and activities for institutional advancement were cut. Profesors leave the Antioch College because the salaries are well below the average and health insurance is quite costly for families. When professors leave, students leave. Neither the problems nor the solutions for creating a thriving Antioch College are as simplistic as creating an attractive curriculum and an attractive campus.
If anyone out there really wants to respond in the manner I require of my students—you are invited to my classes. Please come to campus and do some participant observation, some primary research. I would not allow my students to rely on hearsay, 10 to 15 year-old information, a course description from an outdated catalog when advancing a point of view, and I’m really quite frustrated with former students, journalists, those who have visited our campus for a few days some years ago, those who take quotes from other news sources and use them as their own to make uninformed judgements and summations about the faculty at Antioch College.
Perhaps I should not be surprised. Our own administration has not bothered to become informed about the rigor and attractiveness of our curriculum. Maybe it is more pleasant for the administration to deflect examination of their own unattractiveness by calling into question the “feasability” of the current curriculum.
Please look back to past accreditation remarks. You may find few critical remarks about the curriculum, while finding great concerns about the governance structure and financial stability.
FYI. I teach Cultural Anthropology at Antioch College. The introductory class is at a 200 level and students are required to do primary research, conducting an extended participant observation exercise. I am also teaching Language and Culture in Education, a 200 level class, and am using texts that are used in the MA program at Ohio State. My Ethnography class, 300 level, uses works by James Clifford that are normally found in graduate level classes. Next term I will be teaching Anthropological Theory and using texts that are used in the Ph.D. Leadership and Change program offered through Antioch University.
Please contact me if you would like to come and judge for yourself the “attractiveness” and “feasability” of the Anthropology classes at Antioch College.
Beverly E. Rodgers, Ph.D. (tenure-track, not tenured)
Beverly Rodgers, at 11:35 pm EST on November 5, 2007
I have read many comments here and elsewhere that the lagging Antioch student enrollments were due to either poor quality of the faculty, or outdated and inadequate curriculum. I think neither is true. As a member of the Antioch College Alumni Board I have been on campus about 8 times in the past 3 years, for about 30 total days. I have visited classes, met with many Professors and interviewed dozens of students. From these experiences I would say that blaming low enrollment on either curriculum or faculty is mistaken Both are excellent. And I say this from a background of graduate work and teaching in Ivy League schools. I believe that past low enrollments have instead been due to a whole complex set of systems problems, including lack of Alumni involvement, too much distance between the Board of Trustees and the College, deferrred building maintenance, failues in fund raising, lack of unerstanidng of the importance of tenure by the adult learning campuses of Antioch University, and negative publicity about a great College. Our newly awakened and active Alumni Board, working with surprised and newly energized University Trustees, are hard at work to fix all of these problems. Meanwhile, the students currently at Antioch are receiving an excellent education and are bragging about being there! We are already planning the step by step rebuilding of buildings that need attention and the expansion of the curriculum and deepening of the faculty. As soon as we are given the green light by Accrediting bodies and our governing Board, we will begin recruiting new Freshman classes. In a very short time people will be talking and writing about the miracle of Antioch’s regeneration!
Michael Brower, Antioch College ‘55, Harvard Ph.D. at Taught 15 years, Consulted 25 years, Now Retired, at 5:25 am EST on November 8, 2007
As someone who graduated this past Spring, I feel that I am capable of speaking about Antioch’s current curriculum from a student’s perspective. When I was a student, I had little faith that my degree would actually be worth anything and didn’t feel my education would be as superior as I was led to believe when I enrolled. I completely underestimated what I was learning at Antioch. I feel this is due to the climate on campus and not having faith and confidence in Antioch and it’s amazing qualities. Just because the facilities are in deplorable condition, does not mean that the curriculum must be poor. Now that I have graduated, with a BS in Biomedical Science, I find that I have an outpouring of opportunities. The only criticism I have about my education is that I wish we had had more money for the science department. However, learning how to change experiments and procedures to save money and resources is a great tool that I’m glad I learned at Antioch. It taught me how to look at the bigger picture and find alternative ways to accomplish my goals in the laboratory, especially when it came time for my senior project. It decreased the narrow minded thinking that things can only be done one way. I currently am a contractor at Eli Lilly and make almost $40,000 a year, which is great for a fresh-out-of-college person. I started working here as a co-op and they liked what they saw in me and even created a position for me. One of my attributes, according to them, was that I was an “alternative thinker", which is a common thread in all Antioch students. One of my co-workers is currently going back to school at a state university here in Indianapolis and I see what she is learning in her Anatomy and Physiology classes and feel that Antioch taught me much more. She has even asked me to help her with her courses. I want to say to students: Do NOT underestimate the value of an Antioch College education. I realize, now that I’m on the outside of it all, how superior it truly is. I want to say to all the professors of Antioch: Thank you. I know your sacrifices and I don’t think you are told this enough.Part of what made the school what it was to me is that people were truly there for the academics and wanted to learn and immerse themselves in it. They clearly weren’t there for the state-of-the-art facilities. I feel the curriculum is much more rigorous and tougher than that of other schools and if changing the curriculum to attract students means “dumbing it down", well I want no part in funding that.
Jessica, Class of ‘07 at Antioch College, at 10:15 am EST on November 8, 2007
As one commentary suggested, the problems at Antioch are complex and overlapping, and I would even suggest indicative of the college’s own history. In a time when denominational college founding was sweeping westward, it is important to note that much like other institutions, at Antioch’s founding it seems that zeal had outpaced preparation and planning. A quick read of the college’s history will certainly reveal that Antioch College has always been an institution more financially hopeful than secure. One historian notes that the college was well in debt before the doors even opened in the mid 19th century and that Mann himself was perpetually frustrated with the financial and philosophical crises of the college. While the college enjoyed some economic viability in the early to mid 20th century under Morgan’s leadership, since the 1970s financial issues have loomed large.
Small, distinct,private colleges have a history of struggle and hardiness. Look at the rebound of Bennington College or the thriving Warren-Wilson College as contemporary examples. I would think that President Coleman at Bennington may be a great resource for the stakeholders at Antioch.
Brian, at 11:25 am EST on November 13, 2007
Regarding the AUBoT resolution praising Antioch Chancellor Toni Murdoch for her leadership, I would beg to ask: What leadership? At every point in her history as Chancellor, Murdock has championed the satelite campuses and acted to structure the governance and accounting of the university to their benefit and to the detriment of the college. Now she is happy to take our money without a requirement that she actually do something to save the college beyond talk about how hard it is going to be and how much money it will cost. Antioch will never be able to thrive, let along survive on tuition revenue, it needs the independence to develop its own alternative revenue sources, the creation of a even a small endowment (currently less than $33MM compared to NYT article on “small” endowments that are under a BILLION), and preferential accounting practices and funding from the other units of the university in perpetual return on the investment the college made of its capital, its reputation, and its academic assets to create the satelitte campuses. Flagship indeed. We are long used to Ms La Pierre’s consistent negativity in regard to the college. If she is not a sabatouer she is at least counter productive and should be censured by the University for her comments. It is difficult for the students, faculty, staff and alumni to accept the Chancellor’s good faith when her right hand so regularly leaks complaints to the press.
Travis Sanford, Antioch College Class of 1995, at 10:20 am EST on November 16, 2007
In Response to Maurice Meilleur:
It amazes me how from time I will come across some jerk who wants to speak with much confidence over something they obviously know nothing about. I guess they really are everywhere.
You appear to have animosity over the spirit, strength and courage it takes for the professors, students, (college) administration, and staff to be here despite the struggles, and supporting something they believe so strongly in. Students who are here choose to be here. It is true the faculty here are paid much less than their counterparts at other Universities. They choose to be here. Everyone who is here is here for a reason.
As a student at Antioch College, I wouldn’t trade my experience right here, right now for the entire world — not even for a free shoddy education elsewhere. Everyone here is making history, one step at a time. Since the suspension was lifted — less than a month ago — we have had over 50 inquires to the college. That is amazing!!! And we’re just getting started!!!
WE WILL ACCEPT STUDENTS, BUT WE CAN’T OUTRIGHT RECRUIT YOU... NOT YET. IF YOU WANT TO REALLY MAKE CHANGE, CHALLENGE YOURSELF, BE READY FOR THE REAL WORLD AND JOIN THE BOOTCAMP FOR THE REVOLUTION, COME CHECK US OUT AND ASK US WHY WE STAY!!!!!
Some people want to know how to create change in their world and the world around them. Some people like to challenge themselves to grow like they’ve never grown before. Some people want to change their lives. Some people want to win victories for humanity.
Others want to be miserable and accept their miserable fates, rolling over and despising those who dare to fight to make the world a better place. How sad.
And shame on you.
Amanda Caserta, student at Antioch College, at 4:15 am EST on November 29, 2007
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Has Alumni Board Kept Its Pledges to Alumni?
The Antioch Alumni Board (AB) has been successful at raising money and getting Murdock and the Antioch University Board of Trustees to accept it. The AB has given a vote of confidence to both Murdock and the need for “financial exigency.” But the AB has been less successful in negotiating with the University BOT, whose only major concession appears to be to keep the college open temporarily.
Since the AB abandoned its pledge to obtain a “complete and independent audit” and agreed to conduct its negotiations in secret, the Antioch community may never know what happened, or why.
The AB repeatedly said it was dedicated to “the uninterrupted continuation of Antioch College as an independent liberal arts college with a tenured faculty.”
Alumni and donors will now have to decide if this agreement fulfills the pledges the AB made, or whether the time has come to vote no confidence in the AB itself.
Richard, at 7:25 am EST on November 5, 2007